One of the complaints I hear most often from those who reside outside of the United States is the inability to input foreign addresses on U.S. ecommerce sites. Some companies might not support international sales due to an inability to handle international shipping, import/export regulations or currency conversions. While strategies do exist to overcome these difficulties, that’s a topic for another post.

But what if an out-of-country shopper is simply looking to purchase an item for delivery to a stateside address? Whether it’s a grandchild’s birthday present from American Girl, a wedding gift from Macy’s gift registry, or a simple gift certificate for the Olive Garden, many ecommerce platforms are unable to accept shipping addresses in one country and billing addresses in another. The result: lost revenue for merchants and frustration for shoppers with friends and loved ones in other countries.

Security is one of the main reasons cited for not accepting international billing addresses. Right now, only a few countries support AVS (Address Verification System), an automated process that uses a cardholder’s billing address to verify his or her identity and thus help reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions. However, there are other ways to protect against fraud without limiting sales to residents of the seller’s country.

The following guidelines can help retailers accommodate international customers with minimal effort and expense. And the potential for increased sales and goodwill should more than cover the costs incurred.

1. Revamp the Checkout Process.

In order to accommodate foreign addresses, a Web site will need to be recoded to take regional differences into account, a process known as internationalization. If international delivery is not supported, only the billing address fields will need to be revised. However, messaging informing users about shipping locales and policies must be clearly and prominently displayed.

Victoria’s Secret uses a flexible checkout form that enables shoppers to input billing and shipping addresses for different countries. By asking users to indicate billing & shipping locations prior to providing them, the site is able to tailor the form fields to the user’s specific needs.

HarryandDavid.com, a site specializing in gift baskets, also makes it easy for users to purchase from one country and ship to another. Selecting an option in the “Country” drop-down menu resets the form to one that accepts foreign address formats.

2. Verify billing information manually.

If AVS is not an option, merchants can contact the purchaser’s credit card company to verify the information submitted online. The reduction in abandoned shopping carts should more than make up for any additional time or effort necessary to process sales. Retailers currently requiring shoppers living abroad to call in their orders via telephone will actually experience a decrease in processing time, by keeping the entire purchasing process online.

3. Use an online payment processing service.

If manually verifying billing addresses is not feasible, utilizing an online payment processing service is another way to expand a company’s customer base. With these simple, low cost services, online merchants can offer shoppers around the world a safe and secure environment for inputting their credit card information.

Paypal, the most widely used of these services, enables users to either remain on the seller’s site throughout the entire checkout process or be linked directly to Paypal.com in order to complete their purchase. Major retailers like Barnes and Noble, Cooking.com, and Dell all offer users the option of paying via Paypal.

Amazon Payments, a subsidiary of ecommerce behemoth Amazon.com, provides shoppers access to the payment information stored in their Amazon.com account, ensuring a simple and familiar user experience. Buy.com and JR.com are examples of large online retailers that utilize Amazon Payments in addition to other means of processing ecommerce transactions.

With all these options, even if a site can only handle domestic shipping, there really is no reason to close the door to international shoppers.

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Elizabeth Glynn

Elizabeth is a user experience practitioner with expertise in information architecture, interaction and user interface design, usability, user-centered strategy and research.

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I want to call your attention to an excellent blog post, 15 Common Mistakes in E-Commerce Design, which describes the most egregious and irritating problems customers frequently find when trying to do online shopping.  These mistakes are easily avoided as long as you know about them.  They are (in summary):

1. A lack of detailed product information
2. Hiding Contact Information
3. A Long or Confusing Checkout Process
4. Requiring an Account to Order
5. An Inadequate Site Search Engine
6. Poor Customer Service Options
7. Tiny Product Images
8. Only One Product Image
9. A Poor Shopping Cart Design
10. Lack of Payment Options
11. Not Including Related Products
12. Confusing Navigation
13. Not Including Shipping Rates
14. Not Including Store Policies
15. Not Putting Focus on the Products

Go read the full post by Cameron Chapman, which includes examples and tips for addressing these mistakes.

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Architela

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I’ve just been reading  How To Respond Effectively To Design Criticism by Andrew Follett. It’s intended for designers in the first instance, but much of the advice should be considered by anyone who has a stake in a website (owner, designer, marketing folks, etc). The main point is to get and make good use of criticism about your site, whether it’s the design or the content.

You can read for yourself, but to summarise the points in a way appropriate to non-designers:

1. Have The Right Attitude
Don’t be too sensitive. Use criticism as a launching point for positive change.

2. Understand The Objective
When seeking feedback about your site, make sure your critic knows why you’re asking (ie, your goals).

3. Check Your First Reaction
Don’t lash out defensively at the first sign of negativity on the part of your critic.

4. Separate Wheat From The Chaff
Not all criticism is created equal. Be able to sort through feedback and discard any that seem to have malice at their root as opposed to honest opinion.

5. Learn From It
If you don’t absorb and act on criticism, there’s no point to seeking it.

6. Look For A New Idea
Criticism can lead to completely new perspectives on your site.  Be open to this.

7. Dig Deeper When Necessary
If you see something intriguing but unclear in your critic’s feedback, be brave and ask for more detail.

8. Thank The Critic
If you respected this person enough to ask for feedback in the first place, remember to thank him or her, even if you heard something that hurts a bit.

As you probably expect, this is a good chance for me to make a pitch for a session with a web strategist, who can offer you the kind of objective feedback you need. Sign up for a Quick Consultation today!

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